Episode97
The Enemy Within We picked things up right after we'd completed the ritual in block four that Veil-Gaze blasted a couple hundred thousand Reavers as they fled from No-J's territory through their Reaver tear to Yaw's staging ground back in the Proto-Galaxy. Thanks to some Arbiter spoon feeding we replayed the incident where Oz had a 'vision' as the Reavers were being destroyed at the end of the Previous Session. In his vision, he saw the Reaver forces arrayed around him, from Yaw's perspective, and even gained insight into what Yaw was feeling (smug satisfaction). More disturbing, was he then felt Yaw feel what it was like to realize that Oz was seeing through his eyes. Somehow, Oz and Yaw had become connected in a very intimate way across time and space! Once the vision had finished, Oz shared what he had seen with an extremely suspicious Rest of the Party, (who had all noticed him acting 'Weird'), and we set about trying to understand it. We determined that it was some serious Reaver Nano magic of at least 'Progenitor level', (i.e. level 30+). Also, It bore a concerning resemblance to the Reaver Nanite Mystic machines that we had dealt with back on Honsrin. Unable to crack the case on our own, it looked like we would need the help of one of the Progenitors. Oz suggested Zargax, which dove-tailed nicely with the fact that oh Yaw we haven't seen him since the Reaver attack on the Star when he fled screaming off into space and we should probably do something about it since we actually need him to cover a portion of the Galaxy for the End of Times Miracle that is starting immediately. Kiwi was able to contact Zargax with his Galactic Telepathy so we ultimately tracked him down and Kiwi Gated us to his location, (In hindsight, Pete's decision to use his 'Super-Rare Magic Item Token' to buy Kiwi a Prismatic Heart-Stone to reduce the costs of his Galactic Portal is probably his best contribution to the whole Campaign!). Zargax's inspection of Oz's condition revealed that the Mystic-Reaver-Necrites were evenly spread throughout all of his various tissues, so no amount of exsanguination was going to help. Furthermore, he reavealed that Oz was now a Phlyactory for Yaw's life essence. Yes, apparently when Yaw dies, his essence will now jump to Oz, where it will be safe. We figured that Oz must've been infected by the Reaver Assassins when he was momentarily out of commission at the battle of the Space Cannon. Oz was a little worried Zargax was going to go 'full zealot' on him when he found out about Yaw being all up and in him, but thankfully we were able to redirect Zarg's attention back to the Ritual and Gate him back to Veilos. When we got back to Veilos we made an effort to cleanse Oz using the Super-Combined-Gaze, but even with our full new Fisting Crew, it simply wasn't powerful enough. Apparently It was going to take a Miracle to clear that shit out, but the Convergence was upon us, and we simply didn't have time! Zargax said that could transferred Yaw's Nanites to another host, (he suggested someone 'less useful, like Pete'), but Oz, (despite being tempted to take advantage of Pete's Martyr Complex), claimed that it didn't matter anyway, since he simply couldn't, in good conscience, ask someone else to take on such a burden. Zargax figured that killing the Phylactery host would help but not before Yaw had entered. Killing Oz ahead of time, (despite Pete's apparent glee at the thought), would likely not help as Yaw would simply Resuscitate the dead host. Instead, its looking like Oz will need to make the ultimate sacrifice at the end of things to save the multiverse. Uxia is going to be pissed... Oz had a couple more visions over the course of the evening, and he gleaned a little more insight about Yaw each time. Yaw had been preparing for the Convergence for a millennium by practicing numerous potential outcomes. None of what had happened since Oz could feel his thoughts has surprised him in the least. Overwhelmingly, he felt satisfaction and a bit of relief, (especially one we started our attack). In short, things were going as he had foreseen. With the knowledge that Yaw may or may not have been watching us through Oz's eyes at any given moment we checked our Commemorative Convergence Chronometers and started counting down to the Convergence. Based on our Last-Minute Strike strategy, we had about 18 minutes to kill. Oz declared that if there ever was a time to rally the side of the Light it was now, so we opened up a channel to our galaxy-spanning network of religious cultists G'neer Faithfulall, fervently praying in unison at our Indoctrination Centers Churches of the G'neer on hundreds of worlds, the Major Holonets, capturing thousands of planets more, and via the Net spreading our Message of Hope to the entire Galaxy. Queue the epic 4-way Group Beguile, (thanks to Pete's 'Slick' buff from the Star he managed to not drag down the rest of the group too badly), in which we totally kicked ass at rallying the troops. Each character made a Keynote Remark. Oz got things started with the classic "we shall not go into the night rallying cry". The Kiwika spoke about the shared bond across the galaxy from fighting the Reavers and how that strength would carry the day and let us cleanse the galaxy once and for all of the Reaver menace. I think that Pete's was "In the end, remember that no sacrifice was too great!" Might've been a bit of a downer in an otherwise upbeat presentation, but nobody seemed to notice. We then summoned forth the Dragons for the final battle to fulfill their debt and free the Mother of all Dragons. Along with Traxis came the ones we had recently fought with but there were some new faces. The Dragons had taken heed of Oz's suggestion that they un-banish some additional allies since circumstances had changed, here at the end of things, and their prior crimes just didn't seem so bad anymore (and maybe even justified in the case of the Treewe). The great Treewee Godbeast (who's name escapes this logger right now) was one of the previously banished and he was happy to see Kiwi; the ultimate realization of his great project started so long ago. Oz considered asking them about his Reaver nanite Yaw-fection but decided against is since Dragons can be unpredictable at the best of times. When we were ready to go, Traxis opened up a portal direct to Yaw's staging area, deep in the heart of the Reaver Proto-Galaxy. The Dragon Portal was big enough for us to fly our entire Assault Fleet through; all of Raiden's Raiders including both their Progenitor Class capital ships, the Vielos Expeditionary Force's Reaver Buster Squadrons, as well as an additional force made up of Alliance Fighters, Flying Space Squirrels and even Random Spacers who just showed up to help out. As the Portal opened up, we could see the mist of the Veil Nebula pouring through the opening and billowing out into Reaver-Space, afflicting all Reavers in its path with its Anti-Reaver Brightness. Seeing the Portal was facing directly toward Yaw, Pete ordered the immediate detonation of the G'Neer Light Bomb that we had miracled up for Veilos earlier in the week. It erupted in a blast of pure Light Energy, clearing out the vast majority of the Reaver forces in Veilos' Galactic Hex, as well as shining through through the Portal like a giant laser, vaporizing all of the Reavers between us and Yaw! As per our extremely complicated plan, we punched it, flying our Assault Fleet straight up our enemy's nose at faster than the speed of light! Whether due to Luck, years of Expert Training, or the Hand of the Prophesy, who can say, but we suffered a mere 02% casualty rating on the maneuver, (much lower than even our most wildly optimistic projections!). As we popped back into normal space deep inside Yaw's humongous nasal cavity we could immediately see it was populated by a wide variety of Reavers, and that we would have our work cut out for us gaining access to the portion of Yaw's sinuses where we hoped to force our way through into his brain-pan. Called it for the night right before before Initiative 0 of the fight to end all fights, (or at least this Campaign). 44 Generic 11 Combat for the Loggers Back to Space Junk Log Category:Space Junk